Gavai stakes claim for CM’s post

Before the Third Front goes to Assembly polls, the Unified Republican Party, that supports the third force, has started showing cracks.

A day after the Third Front’s name was announced officially, the RPI (Gavai) General Secretary Dr Rajendra Gavai, on whose party symbol the RPI candidates will contest the elections, has staked claim to the chief minister’s post. “Among all smaller parties in the Third Front, the Unified Republican is most powerful. We will claim half of the seats in the coming Assembly elections. Hence, if we come into power, I will claim the CM’s post,” Gavai said in an e-mail to Hindustan Times on Tuesday.

Another senior RPI leader Ramdas Athawale said it was premature on Gavai’s part to stake make a claim.